Tom Hanks' Stint On Jury Duties Ends After Misconduct Claim

The acting legend was called up for jury duty for a domestic abuse trial in Los Angeles, which ended early following allegations of jury tampering.

Tom Hanks has been serving as part of a 12-person jury for a domestic violence case since last week, and yesterday (12 September) his time in court came to an end. The trial was forced to be declared a mistrial however, after the prospect of meeting one of Hollywood's most famous products was too much for one of the prosecutor's team.

Hank's star power was too much to ignore for one lawyer.

The trial concerned accusations of domestic abuse from an unnamed female against her partner. The male defendant was facing the potential of a year behind bars should he have been found guilty, however he managed to get away with only a minor fine and plea deal. The mistrial was forced after one of the members of the Los Angeles prosecutor's office approached the star during a court break to thanked him for his work, breaking the rule of no lawyer/jury fraternising during an ongoing case. Although he avoided jail time through the mistrail ruling, he did agree on a plea deal for disturbing the peace as well as a $150 fine.

Tom has been rocking the moustache for a while now, and he looks good!

Andrew Flier, a lawyer from the defence team spoke with TMZ following the trial to explain exactly what had happened, revealing that a female member of the LA City Attorney's Office approached Hanks during a lunch break on Wednesday, 11 September, breaking the rules against jurors and lawyers fraternising during cases. He said, "The assigned prosecutor on the case gave notice to the court and myself, which was his duty of course under the ethics rules, that he either saw or was told that one of his colleagues had the contact with Mr Hanks. It was not the assigned trial prosecutor."

"So she, in essence, was being maybe a little star-struck and nice, but it's an absolute 100% no-no and should never have happened," he added. Both sides of the case settled for the defendant to plead no contest to the minor charges so the trial could be ended on time. Hanks hasn't made any comment on his jury service yet.